Study: Many CEOs of Ohio’s largest companies make 200 times more than staff

Marathon’s chief executive, Gary Heminger, drew a total annual compensation of $19,670,807, which is 935 times as much as the median pay of his employees, that company’s proxy said. FILE

Data covering nearly half of Ohio’s biggest companies show that their chief executives are making more than 200 times what their “typical” workers earn in a year, according to a just released study.

According to a report from the labor-focused Policy Matters Ohio think tank, 44 of Ohio’s 100 largest employers show their CEOs usually make more than 200 times what their companies’ typical workers earn in a year.

The information is drawn from U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) filings that publicly traded companies have been required for the to make for the first time this year.

Earlier this year, this news outlet reported, for example, that the CEO of Miami Twp.-based Teradata makes 137 times as much as the median pay of Teradata Corp. employees in the 2017 fiscal year. That median pay was $77,565, according to the company’s SEC-filed proxy statement.

“We expect our ratio of 935:1 may be relatively high when compared to other domestic U.S. refiners,” Marathon said in its March filing. “This expected difference is largely due to our substantial retail operations (more than 2,700 stores), staffed by approximately 32,000 employees, many of whom are part-time employees.”

Enon-based Speedway LLC is part of Findlay-based Marathon.

The federal Dodd-Frank Act required companies to provide the ratio of CEO pay to that of their median worker — the one whose pay falls in the middle of all employees, Policy Matters noted.

“While caution is needed comparing companies, particularly between different industries, the data show the disparity is huge,” the think tank said in a summary of its study.

Policy Matters said 44 Ohio publicly traded companies have filed reports with the SEC. A majority of the top 100 employers do not have to file such reports either because they are nonprofits, government employers, privately owned or foreign companies. A few others have yet to file with the SEC.

Overall, 28 CEOs made more than 200 times their typical workers, based on the reports to the SEC, and 21 made more than 300 times as much, the study said.

“CEO pay has skyrocketed over the past 40 years, while worker pay has barely budged,” Zach Schiller, research director of Policy Matters Ohio and co-author of the report, said in a release. “This has contributed to growing inequality. CEO pay has also outpaced profits and stock prices.”